Luis Rocha - Papal decree

‘Don’t tell me you didn’t know?’ Myriam interrupted, not knowing she was interrupting anything.

Sarah shook her head.

Myriam put her hand on top of hers. ‘You don’t have anything to worry about, dear. It’s a divine condition.’ Her voice changed, and it was Sarah’s turn to offer her a friendly shoulder.

‘Don’t be afraid, Myriam. Everything is going to be okay,’ she wished. ‘We’re going to get there on time and resolve everything.’

Myriam dissolved in tears as Sarah hugged her. The sorrow was contagious, but someone had to be strong.

‘It’s not fair, Sarah. No parent should lose a son.’ Myriam wept hard.

‘That’s not going to happen,’ Sarah comforted her. ‘We’re going to look for him. Everything will turn out right.’ What more could she say?

‘Don’t speak about my son as if he were dead, Myr,’ Ben Isaac admonished her, from his own seat, not looking at the women. ‘Little Ben is alive. They’re not going to do anything to him.’

Sarah asked the attendant for a cup of water with sugar. The plane continued northeast, but for Ben it seemed motionless. He spoke with the pilot to move things along, but they were at the maximum altitude and speed the jet could tolerate. The more you hurry, the slower you go, Ben Isaac thought, his heart heavy with sorrow. But he would not be weak in front of a woman he didn’t know.

The cardinal who had surprised them didn’t continue the trip with them.

‘You’re a difficult man to find, Ben Isaac,’ William observed.

‘I’m not hiding,’ Ben Isaac said.

‘Let me introduce you to Sarah Monteiro.’

‘I’m sorry I don’t have time for a longer conversation,’ Ben Isaac said, excusing himself politely. He wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

‘We know about your son,’ William suddenly cut them off. ‘We received a DVD. I’m very sorry.’

Myriam lowered her head and controlled herself. It seemed like a death announcement. Her chest burned with a torrent of tears she forced herself not to show in front of the cardinal and this Sarah, who remained silent.

‘You received a DVD? Then you know I’m in a hurry,’ Ben Isaac proclaimed. He was losing his patience and had no time for the rules of etiquette or good manners.

‘Certainly. I’m leaving,’ William excused himself. ‘Sarah is current on everything and is going to go with you.’

The situation was strange, but Ben Isaac didn’t protest. Here was a cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith telling him he was current on everything, knew about his son’s kidnapping, and imposing a woman on him. They were in the same boat, or, in this case, the same plane. She had disappeared into the toilet for half an hour. After freshening herself up, the time had come to lay all the cards on the table.

‘What’s your role in all this?’ Ben Isaac wanted to know.

‘If you want me to tell you frankly, I don’t really know,’ Sarah answered timidly.

‘Did you see the DVD?’

‘On the way to the airport.’

‘What did they tell you?’

‘They talked about the Status Quo.’

Ben looked at her with different eyes. They’d told her everything. Why was she so special?

The attendant arrived with the sweetened water and gave it to Myriam.

‘Tell me about yourself,’ he asked, softening his all-knowing attitude.

Sarah didn’t like to describe herself, but she understood. ‘I’m a journalist, the editor of international politics for the Times. I live in London. My father is Portuguese, my mother English.’

‘I think I’ve read something written by you.’

‘It’s probable. I published two books on the Vatican, specifically on the two popes before this one.’

‘The church trusts you?’

‘Let’s say it trusts me distrustfully,’ Sarah said sincerely. She wasn’t going to hide anything from Ben Isaac. ‘You know perfectly well how these things are. Today’s enemies are tomorrow’s friends. You never know how the world will turn, only that it will.’

‘What do you have that they want?’

The Jew knew what questions to ask.

‘It’s complicated,’ Sarah argued.

‘I don’t consider myself too stupid,’ argued the other with a half smile, the first she had seen. He emanated grief, a life of work and caution.

‘Have you ever heard of JC?’

Ben searched his memory. ‘Jesus Christ?’

Sarah smiled. She wanted to tell him he was right. JC sometimes seemed supernatural, not in terms of love or mercy, but being omnipresent. He knew everything at all times.

‘It could be, but no,’ she answered. ‘JC was a mercenary, responsible for the murder of John Paul the First.’

‘Don’t tell me he was actually assassinated?’ Ben Isaac was truly shocked.

‘I remember that day well,’ Myriam put in. ‘I cried all day long. It was never satisfactorily explained. There were always doubts.’

The day of September 29, 1978, of unhappy memory, dawned with the death of Albino Luciani, the ‘Smiling Pope,’ thirty-three days after he’d been elected by the College of Cardinals. Officially, the death was attributed to a massive heart attack. But many strange things came to light, though the official version was never disproved or changed.

‘He was murdered,’ Sarah confirmed. ‘JC is a very powerful man.’

‘I never heard a thing about this,’ Ben Isaac said, trying to remember any situation involving such a man.

‘Few people know about it. I found out about it without wanting to, by chance.’

‘Life is chance.’

‘Well, yes,’ Sarah agreed. ‘Anyway, the Vatican needs him, and I’m the only contact.’

‘Why do they need him?’ Ben Isaac didn’t understand.

‘I don’t know. But it looks like he’s important in helping to resolve everything that is happening lately.’

‘I can’t see what JC has to do with the kidnapping of my son.’

‘He doesn’t. He has something to do with the death of three of the Five Gentlemen.’

Ben Isaac turned red. Sarah and Myriam looked at him anxiously, fearing he was having some kind of attack.

‘What’s the matter, Ben?’ Myriam asked him in alarm. What a night. ‘Tell me, honey.’

They tore his jacket off and unbuttoned his shirt. He seemed to be having difficulty breathing. He coughed weakly. Myriam tried to get him to sip the rest of her sweetened water. A few moments later Ben calmed down, regained control, and breathed more easily.

Myriam placed herself in front of him and looked him directly in the eyes.

‘Ben Isaac, tell us everything you’re holding back. Don’t hide anything from me or from Sarah.’ She stared even harder. ‘It’s an order.’

Ben Isaac wet his lips and lowered his eyes. He felt destroyed.

‘Do you know their names?’ he asked Sarah.

‘Who?’

‘The ones who died.’

Sarah took out her notebook. ‘Um… Yaman Zafer, Sigfried Hammal, and Ernesto Aragones.’

Each name was like an arrow in Ben Isaac’s chest. A tear ran down his face. He was in pain.

‘The Five Gentlemen are… They were experts who validated the discoveries of 1947 in the Qumran valley. At first there were only three. Later we recruited two more. We demanded a vow of silence, which was never broken,’ Ben Isaac explained. ‘This silence was essential for guarding the discoveries and for…’ He hesitated.

‘For what, Ben?’ Myriam insisted seriously.

‘To maintain the Status Quo,’ he confessed.

‘And what does that mean?’ Myriam sounded irritated.

‘The Status Quo. Things as they are.’

‘Why did these documents always remain in your possession?’ Sarah asked.

Ben Isaac didn’t answer at once. He wanted to find the right words. He didn’t want to be imprecise. He looked at Myriam fearfully. ‘Because it was my team that found them. Whoever finds them is the owner.’